Pro Evolution Soccer 5

A change in pace and AI tactics makes this the trickiest Pro Evo to play yet.

Review By KCN

Konami's football games have originated all the way back from Konami Hyper-soccer on the SNES, and it's been famous for the arcade-style International Superstar Soccer games on various formats, such as the SNES, Psone and the N64. ISS Pro Evolution was the first step towards realistic football in 2000, with a sequel released the next year with the introduction of real names, but PS2 PES as we know it appeared first in 2001. ISS and Pro Evolution has traditionally been famous for it's lack of licenses and poor commentary, which still remains today but on a smaller scale. PES on the PC first appeared with PES3, but bloated system requirements and forgetting to say it wouldn't work well on a Geforce MX was a downfall.

Pro Evolution 5 has got better in many aspects in terms of gameplay. The game-play has become slower, making PES4 more like pinball in comparison, beating keepers can no longer be done by shooting at the goal and hoping it goes in, as they most likely save it, although the limited analogue functionality is a problem with directing shots. The traditional R1 and X combination for defending has now been tweaked so it's very easy to foul a player if you hold it without caution, and burning to places with R1 most normally causes you to run into other players giving the ball away like free samples.

The PC version of Pro Evolution 5 is an almost exact port of the PlayStation 2 version, right down to having to configure the controls to the PS2 control pad (i.e. configure A to square or Q to L1). To play the game it is strongly recommended you use a gamepad, as the game is plane horrible on the keyboard, but you can buy a PS2 to USB converter for GBP7 if you have a PS2 pad already. The graphics are sharper on the PC when you use higher detail and resolution but unfortunately Konami haven't implemented anti-aliasing/anistropic filtering so players look jagged unless you use a really high resolution.

As from Pro Evo 4 on the PC, online mode is back. Online PES is just how you like it, play a player somewhere in the world, and win/lose. You receive points for winning, drawing but lose some if you lose. You have a ranking based on numbers of points, win % and a class to determine if you're good or not. It's quite tricky to get a player to play against sometimes, and players who seem ready don't always connect with you, plus Konami haven't done much to stop cheaters. You can't blame Konami for human nature, such as people who sign off when they go 1-0 down (although you win) but some people make you lag by running applications that eat bandwidth, etc. and get away with it sometimes.

However, Pro Evolution online far outweighs it's criticisms, and there's no catch to it. Buy the game for 18 bob, register and get a password and prepare to challenge the world, no subscriptions! You might just end up playing online all the time, apart from when your internet is down, but let's face, when you play against different players with different skills, it's a lot better, and it feels like playing against other people from how they play. It just doesn't feel that way against the computer, not saying it's bad against the computer. Hopefully Konami will implement more features, like 11-vs-11 and proper tournaments.

PES5 is still great offline, whether you have the net or not. The League's and cups are all there, plus the legendary Master League is there as ever. Although you can't have 6 different European Leagues with all the teams and the like, you can have it quite similar, starting in a small division of 8 teams and get yourself promoted, and hopefully try to win the WEFA Championships. You have a choice to start with a new team (with the traditional ML donkeys), use an existing team with the traditional ML donkeys or use a team with their players. If you choose the latter it can weigh down your wages so watch out! As from PES4 players can develop/decline in certain statistics such as their speed or power, so buying a 33-year old Carlos is not a great idea, as players can retire, so looking for young players is crucial. The Master League is extremely addictive and can cause many emotional moments, it's why single player PES is king.

The flexibility on PES is where the series has always knocked FIFA from possession. As always, the way the gameplay flows smoothly on PES is there, the way the gameplay all interconnects and gives much more freedom and room for what you are doing. On FIFA, the gameplay can feel sluggish and it's difficult to make runs and there's hardly any flexibility in passing. With PES, there's the traditional X button to pass, but then you need to decide what kind of pass you're going to do, perhaps plan that through ball when that striker is in that position, or do a 1-2 with Gutaso on the wing or something. Timing of the passes is crucial, pass the ball hoping for it to skim pass the opposition to your center midfield most likely makes the interception, but a quick dribble then knocking it to them can cause the ball to go past them. Through balls have to be timed, otherwise you'll be giving away possession like pamphlets.

PES5 requires a more cautious approach to the gameplay then encountered on PES4, so don't be alarmed to have the prowess you thought you had needled through on this. Getting the game and starting with a keyboard wasn't nice, and was my excuse for not doing well. But when I got my PS2-USB converter I realized the difficulty of the game. The more speedy approach on PES4 has now been made redundant in favour of a slower steadier game on PES5, on PES4 for instance it was possible to win by making lots of runs and through-balls, and beating the keeper was next to easy. Now, running a lot doesn't do much more then give the opposition possession, as when you run past that man he'll only tackle you. Through balls as well aren't so easy, although they work to some extent, but defenders will often catch up, so unless you stick Martins and Cisse up front relying on counter-attacks isn't usually the best way forward. You need to time those passes and build up some play, and craftily beat the keeper because again it's no good blasting the ball at them.

As always, tweaking with player stats and formations is one keyway to winning on PES5. On FIFA you can play with any formation and it hardly does a great deal, while formations are vital to winning on PES. Player stats are very important, it's not just the good players are fast and the rest aren't, but every attribute matters, whether it's stamina, accuracy or balance, everything matters about a player and how they'll do, so if you're playing as Latvia, more cautious play is needed to prevent the strikers getting knocked off the ball easily.

Referee decisions have been tweaked and work very well a 80% of the time, the advantage rule works but does drag on for a bit sometimes, leaving me yelling at the screen when's it going to end when Luis Garcia is running down the ring penetrating the defence, and I can't tackle or I'll give a free-kick away. Off-sides are very accurate, there's no shouting that that through ball was off-side (if you watch the replays) but the annoying thing is when free-kicks still get given to the opposition for an uncontrollable reason. It's annoying scrambling in the opposition's box and you give a free kick away without knowing how, a bit of tweaking needed.

Even though PES5 is an awesome football game, it still does have its flaws. Its biggest flaw is it's lacklustre analogue functionality with some gampads (if not all) in the sense you can only seem to move 8-directions, even with the analogue stick. Scoring from the distance also seems to be a sweet-spot, I've scored numerous goals by hammering it from 25 yards into the net, while there's still some of that scripting of games (games that are unwinnable against the AI no matter what you do).

The graphics on PES5 are top-notch, especially on the PC if you're hardware can handle it. Despite it doesn't use features such as anti-aliasing the game looks very sharp on high-resolutions such as 1280x960. The frame-rates are very smooth as well, although it doesn't go above 60fps it doesn't matter seeing as the game plays very crisp and smooth anyway. Player models are well defined; stadiums look detailed and crisp while animations are all very realistic.

As again the commentators have the commentary prowess of that slug in the back garden but it makes sense, but it's too darn repetitive, the phrases aren't very well scripted while they contradict each other a lot of the time “Ooh, it shaves off by the post” says peter Brackley “If you don't shoot you don't score, but that wasn't quite up to it” replies Trev Brooking.” The licenses are much the same in quantity as off PES4 with Spanish, Dutch and Italian leagues, many national team players plus all the player names for the French, German and English teams. So the English sides still have the Merseyside and Man Red in place, but Arsenal and Chelsea are in there fully licensed, as are the old Firm and a few other random clubs. The editor's there for modding your team and editing logos and creating shirt sponsors, but the big advantage with the PC is that you can patch it so you have real teams. I STRONGLY recommend this, as it' s only an hours work or so, and all the teams are updated. Look for the Superpatch or World Cup patch on Google or somewhere.

PES5 System requirements are the same as before, but for an average PC they're no problem. They say 800MHz processor, 128MB RAM and 1.5Gb hard drive space, and recommend 1.4 GHz, 256MB RAM and 2Gb hard drive space. For graphics cards, Geforce 3 Ti or Radeon 8500 or higher, Geforce MX aren't officially supported. Geforce 2 MX's definitely aren't fast enough but if you have a 2Ghz+ processor PES5 will run OK on low settings with a Geforce 4 MX.

Graphics Sharp, smooth and excellent stadium and player models. Best if you can play on medium settings or better. 9/10
Sound Not much improvement but not so bad that you turn it off, good crowd effects.7/10
Gameplay PES as always but harder and craftier AI 9/10
Life Span ML is great but online is endless fun.9/10

PES5 on the PC is an essential sports game to have, but make sure you get a gamepad for it if you don't have one! It's better than the PS2 version due to it's flexibility (modding), better graphics, easy online access (as you'll most likely have the internet on PC) and it plays slower, although it's not as good cramming your mates around the PC for 8 Player mayhem. Although there is it's flaws with commentary and licensing, plus it's PS2 presentation, there's no denying it's an exciting smooth football game once you're into it. And that won't take long.

NAME: PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 5

SYSTEM: PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, XBOX